IP08 Habitat Equivalency Analysis for Natural Resource Damage Assessment
B115 & B116
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Wednesday
(IP070) Identifying Structural and Functional Indicators for Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA) and Restoration of Submerged Vegetation.
Pastorok, R1, Davis, R2, Salatas, J1, Edwards, M1, 1 Exponent, Bellevue, WA, USA2 Exponent, Albany, NY, USA
ABSTRACT- Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) plays key functional roles in aquatic ecosystems, such as providing substrate for macroinvertebrates, shelter for juvenile fishes, and food resources for valued fish and wildlife. Efforts to restore SAV in degraded habitats depend on knowledge of ecological structure and function, especially the relationships between SAV and associated fauna. Moreover, the effectiveness of habitat restoration efforts depends on selecting appropriate indicators for measuring habitat equivalency and monitoring the success of restoration. Although ecologists have made some progress in developing scientifically defensible and practical endpoints for monitoring the success of restoration projects, most of these endpoints are based on structural attributes of habitats and biological communities. Habitat equivalency analysis (HEA) is currently based mainly on measures of habitat area. We evaluated relationships between ecological structure and function in freshwater SAV beds to determine the feasibility and defensibility of using structural metrics to assess habitat equivalency and the success of restoration efforts. Relationships between SAV metrics and associated biota are best known for epiphytic macroinvertebrates. The presence of SAV increases the abundance and diversity of epiphytic and benthic macroinvertebrates, thereby enhancing food resources for fish and wildlife. SAV biomass and plant morphotype affect the composition of macroinvertebrate communities and may influence fish foraging. The structure of alternative food webs may have important implications for the effectiveness of restoration projects not only in terms of the desirability of the faunal community obtained, but also potential exposure to chemical contaminants. For example, when SAV restoration is conducted at sites after remediation of chemical contamination of sediments, exposure potential for higher trophic level fish and wildlife depends partly on whether the primary food resource base is from the water column or the sediments.
Key words: restoration, ecological, structure, function